Canopy Dumps Top Execs

Two top executives of The Canopy Group, the parent company of Unix firm The SCO Group Inc., have unexpectedly left the firm. Two snippets from the article:SCO spokesperson Blake Stowell confirmed that Canopy had ousted Ralph Yarro, president, chairman and chief executive of the Lindon, Utah-based business, and Darcy Mott, chief financial officer of the company. He was unable to explain why the pair of veteran Canopy managers had been let go. “I honestly don't know,” he said. Calls to Canopy were not returned.
Yarro was a graphic artist who worked for Ray Noorda, founder of Novell Inc. and Canopy. Yarro gained Noorda's trust and rose to Canopy's top position in February 1996. Mott had served as Canopy's vice president, treasurer and CFO since May 1999. Before joining Canopy, Mott worked as vice president and treasurer for Novell.“It is worth noting that SCOsource [SCO's Unix intellectual property division] revenue has declined significantly from a year ago. If SCO is unsuccessful in its efforts to sue IBM and Novell, the share price of SCO stock will fall further and then a shareholder lawsuit becomes a strong possibility,” Quandt said.
When officers that have been around for almost 10 years get ousted and talks of shareholder lawsuits start, there are only bad things ahead. Should be interesting to see how the new management handles the pending IBM case. One can only hope that this silly charade is almost over.
–jeremy